#Barbers Hill High School

[modeljusticelee]

Racial Discrimination: A Texas School Districts Fight over Hair Policies

Now this is interesting. Darryl George‘s story has made national news, as again one Texas School District is called into question over their school policies on hair. I’m left wondering what the regulation is for girls in the district. Are the policies the same? If they are not, the district could be facing some serious repercussions. In the world we live in today, not only could they be hit with…

[benandstevesposts]

Legal experts say a fight over a Black teen's dreadlocks shows how the law still enables racism...

A U.S. judge recently dismissed a Black teen's claim that he was being discriminated against for having dreadlocks!

A federal judge this week dismissed a majority of the claims in a Black Texas high school student's lawsuit against his school district, which accused officials there of racial and gender discrimination for punishing him over his refusal to change his hairstyle. Legal experts told Salon that while the axed racial discrimination claim didn't have strong legs, thanks in part to a controversial Supreme Court doctrine of "colorblindness," the suit's remaining sex discrimination allegation has the potential to have significant reverberations. 

The order dealt another blow to 18-year-old Darryl George, a state judge earlier this year having found his school district's hair-length policy did not violate a new state law that aimed to prohibit race-based hair discrimination.

The Houston-area Barbers Hill Independent School District has argued that its policy restricting male student's hair length is meant to teach grooming and instill a respect for authority, according to The Associated Press. Its superintendent praised the recent court ruling in a statement, blaming "cancerous cancel culture" for accusations of racism.

Read the full report from Salon by clicking here!

[reasoningdaily]

The New York Times: In Texas, a Black High School Student Is Suspended Over His Hair Length

Soon after starting his junior year last month at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, Darryl George was separated from his classmates because of the way he wears his hair, his mother and a lawyer said.

Since the term began on Aug. 16, Darryl, a 17-year-old Black student, has received multiple disciplinary notices that have culminated in more than a week of in-school suspension, where he sits on a stool in a cubicle and work is brought to him, according to his mother, Darresha George. Each morning, he is asked by officials at the school, about 30 miles east of Houston, whether he has cut his hair yet, she said.

He has not.

“He is actually getting singled out,” said Ms. George. “They are personally stopping him, ‘Did he cut his hair?’ Asking him at the door.”

Darryl has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that he pins on his head in a barrel roll, a protective style that reflects Black culture, Ms. George said. On Aug. 31, about two weeks after school started, school officials told her that his hair length, even though pinned, violated the dress code.

“I was told that every day Darryl comes to school, he would be put in in-school suspension because his hair has not been cut,” she said. “Even if pulled up in buns or neatly pulled back, because when let down it is below his earlobes and eyebrows.”

Supporters of the family, including legislators and activists, have called the suspension alarming, saying that it could test a new state law called the CROWN Act. The law, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in May, says, in part, that any dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district “may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.” The law does not specifically mention hair length.

The Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress code mandates that a male student’s hair “will not extend below the eyebrows, below the earlobes or below the top of a T-shirt collar.”

A district spokesman, David Bloom, said that the dress code and suspension were “not in conflict” with the CROWN Act because the code permits protective hairstyles, if the hair would not go beyond the permitted length when let down.

“The vast majority of hair code violation punishments — I.S.S. or more severe — have been handed down to white students,” Mr. Bloom said, using the acronym for in-school suspension, where, he said, students are kept in a classroom staffed by a teacher, and sit at desks separated by partitions so as not to disturb one another.

The school informed Ms. George of Darryl’s suspension just one day before the law took effect on Sept. 1, she said.

Even though the CROWN Act does not specifically mention hair length, Darryl’s supporters have said the district’s move violates the spirit of the law. Candice Matthews, a civil rights activist and vice chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said that braids, locs and twists need to be long to protect the hair.

“It is a hairstyle that is cultural in nature,” she said.

At least 23 other states have adopted similar laws banning discrimination based on race-based hairstyles in the workplace and public schools.

On Sept. 8, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus sent a letter to the district superintendent, Greg Poole, and the school principal, Lance Murphy, urging the district to clear Darryl’s record and warning that the suspension could set a “dangerous precedent.”

“The school is arbitrarily coming up with something else, saying that it’s really not the hair, it’s the length,” said State Representative Ron Reynolds, a Democrat and chair of the caucus.

State Representative Rhetta Andrews Bowers, a Democrat and the primary author of the CROWN Act, said she was inspired by the Crown Coalition, which advocates adoption of the law in other states, and by DeAndre Arnold and Kaden Bradford, cousins who attended high school in the same district as Darryl and were suspended for the length of their dreadlocks in a case that garnered national attention.

“We anticipated that even with the passage of the legislation that there could possibly be incidents,” she said. “We knew that it was largely going to be education and awareness making people understand. We are still on that path.”

Darryl’s case is not the first to test the new law. In August, Katheryn Huerta, the mother of an elementary school student in Mabank, Texas, cited the CROWN Act when she was told that she would have to cut her son’s long hair. Ms. Huerta told WFAA-TV, a local ABC affiliate, that her district later relented, saying she could put her son’s hair in braids and a bun.

A lawyer for Ms. George, Allie Booker, said that Darryl had been given until the end of the week to comply with the school’s dress code or he could be placed in a disciplinary alternative learning program. Ms. Booker said she is considering legal action.

“We are not cutting his hair,” Ms. George said, “because that is part of his culture, that is his roots. It is like cutting off a part of him.”

[sethshead]

This is horrific and discriminatory, and a prime example of how black students are thrown into punitive disciplinary cycles for infractions of nonsensical rules intended to inhibit their social progress and stability.

The Georges' lawsuit is very justified, and this retaliation against a high school student is reprehensible. I hope the award is generous and that the superintended is forced to resign over wasting district resources on a war over one child's hairstyle.

[tiredtwstoutt]

This is STILL Happening in 2023...Black Hair Discrimination

Texas high school sends Black student back to in-school suspension over his locs hairstyle (msn.com)

A Texas high school sent a Black student back to in-school suspension Tuesday for refusing to change his hairstyle, renewing a months long standoff over a dress code policy the teen's family calls discriminatory.

George, 18, already has spent more than 80% of his junior year outside of his regular classroom.

He was first pulled from the classroom at the Houston-area school in August after school officials said his braided locs fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code. His family argues the punishment violates the CROWN Act, which became law in Texas in September and is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination. The school says the CROWN Act does not address hair length.

FILE - Darryl George, left, a 17-year-old junior, and his mother Darresha George, right, talks with reporters before walking across the street to go into Barbers Hill High School after Darryl served a 5-day in-school suspension for not cutting his hair Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, in Mont Belvieu. George will spend the remainder of the year in in-school suspension, extending a punishment that was first imposed in August over his hairstyle that district officials maintain violates their dress code policy. A referral given to George Tuesday, Dec. 5, said his hair is “out of compliance” with the dress code at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke, File)© Provided by The Associated Press

“We are just trying to take it day by day. That’s all we can do,” his mother, Darresha George, told The Associated Press. “We do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. But we are not giving up.”

School officials said George was sent to the disciplinary program for violating the dress code and the tardy policy, disrupting the in-school suspension classroom and not complying with school directives. As he completed his punishment there, district spokesperson David Bloom said George was told he would go back to in-person suspension unless he trimmed his hair.

George's family has filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general along with the school district, alleging they failed to enforce the new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.

The school district has filed a lawsuit in state district court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violate the CROWN Act.

State Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat and chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, said he planned to file an amendment to the law during the next session that “specifically addresses length to stop their pretextual argument to not comply with the Crown Act.”

“They are acting in bad faith to continue discriminating against African American students,” Reynolds said in an email.

George said he feels like is being singled out because there are other boys in the school with longer hairstyles than his. He was denied an exemption that the family requested because of the hairstyle’s cultural and religious importance.

“It’s frustrating because I’m getting punished for something everyone else is doing, growing hair, having hair,” George said.

___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

[puffin902]

The principal and his "sacrifices" quote are both bull shit. It's really just don't look Black. Truly disgusting

[sab-cat]

A Texas high school sent a Black student back to in-school suspension Tuesday for refusing to change his hairstyle, renewing a monthslong standoff over a dress code policy the teen’s family calls discriminatory. The student, Darryl George, was suspended for 13 days because his hair is out of compliance when let down, according to a disciplinary notice issued by Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas. It was his first day back at the school after spending a month at an off-site disciplinary program. George, 18, already has spent more than 80% of his junior year outside of his regular classroom.

He was first pulled from the classroom at the Houston-area school in August after school officials said his braided locs fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code. His family argues the punishment violates the CROWN Act, which became law in Texas in September and is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination. The school says the CROWN Act does not address hair length.

[sidewalkstamps]

Norman F. Barber General Contractor Los Angeles (Photo taken by Rachel Hughes on April 14, 2024 around Downtown Los Angeles)

In 1912, Norman designed a garage and stable for Richardson, Holmes & Lamb Co., which was constructed by Barber-Bradley Const Co. I'm guessing Barber was the Barber in that company. In the same year, Barber was one of two architects for a concrete store and loft building in downtown Los Angeles for Alexander Meyer, again built by Barber-Bradley. Barber-Bradley were located at 1824 East 15th St. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, Volume 10, Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California, 1912 and Engineering News, Volume 69, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1913). In 1909 they were located at 212 W. 3d. (Engineering World: A Weekly Technical Journal of Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, mining and Architectural Engineering and Construction, Volume 5, Engineering World Publishing Company, 1907 and Brown, Charles Carroll. Directory of American Cement Industries, Municipal Engineering, 1909). They filed for incorporation on August 1, 1906 in Los Angeles (pg. 36, Annual Report of the Secretary of State, California Secretary of State, California State Printing Office, 1908). By 1907, they were already working on some big projects, like "erecting a manufacturing plant at 2620 Lacy St." for Talbert-Whitmore Co. (Engineering World, March 29, 1907).

In the 1913 Los Angeles City Directory, Barber is listed as a draftsman who lived at 4342 S Flower (Los Angeles Directory Co., Inc., accessed via LAPL).

In 1917, Barber-Bradley was "awarded the general contract ... for the erection of a brick and concrete school building at West Vernon and Olive Sts. in accordance with plans and specifications by Archt. W.C. Pennell." This year also has the only bid I see Barber-Bradley lost! They were not selected to build the "training quarters and bleachers at the new Los Angeles High School site" Some other projects from this year: remodeling the Eisner & Co. store in the Hayward Hotel building, including all work except for tile flooring and including but not limited to "plate and prism glass and marble fronts, mahogany finish and fixtures;" "repairing the fire damage to the 1-story brick warehouse on San Fernando St., opposite the Southern Pacific freight depot, for the Union Warehouse Company; "fitting up a room at 330 S. Main St. for a barber ship (sic);" erecting a brick and concrete school building on the 24th St. school site; and "alterations to Miller's Theatre at Ninth and Main Sts" such as adding a store room adjoining the lobby and a women's bathroom (Southwest Builder and Contractor, Volume 50, F. W. Dodge Company, 1917).

In 1919, Norman was a 'member' of Geo. F. Barber, Sons & Co, a general contracting business located at 4342 S. Flower St. The other member was George F. Barber, which I am guessing was his father (Southwest Builder and Contractor, F.W. Dodge Company, 1919).

Barber lost a bid to build Inglewood's new city hall building to W. M. Bell (Building and Engineering News, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1923) .

Norman F. Barber was the original owner and contractor of the 2-storey single residence at 2615 N. Commonwealth Avenue (Los Feliz Improvement Association Historical Residential Survey 3rd Edition Volume IV: Streets Beginning with Cl to Cu, Los Feliz Improvement Association, 2019).

There was a Norman F. Barber who wrote "Directional recording of swell from distant storms" with Walter H. Munk, Gaylor R. Miller, and Frank E. Snodgrass, as listed in Scripps Institution of Oceanography Contributions Index Vols. 1-39, 1938-1969.

In 1938, "approximately 25 tons of asbestos per month [were] mined from the Canadian mine, located near Chrysotile, Arizona, under the direction of Norman F. Barber, lessee, Box 1010, Globe, Arizona" by four men. The property was owned by the Globe-Los Angeles Mining Company (The Mining Journal for July 15, 1938).

Norman supervised the construction "of 100 unites for Marble Manor Housing, a Public Housing Authority project in Las Vegas, Nev." (Western Construction, Volume 27, King Publications, 1952).

[hoodoverhollywood]

A Texas school has punished a Black student over his hairstyle for mo…

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. At 18, Darryl George has spent most of his junior year at Barbers Hill High School separated from his classmates, sentenced to a mix of in-school suspension or class at an alternative education campus. He’s allegedly denied hot food and isn’t able to access teaching…

[fake-colors]

suspended the day before the CROWN act took effect in a district that has previously forced a black student to cut his dreadlocks. it's like the district is asking for trouble but

Judge sides with Barbers Hill ISD in CROWN Act dispute involving student suspended over length of locs (link)

ignoring that requiring short hair for one gender is ridiculous, if he kept his hair secured and up like the article says that should not violate dress code

context with another article below the cut

italics added

A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. The school says it wasn’t discrimination (link)

By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY and JUAN LOZANO Updated 3:30 PM CST, September 18, 2023

MONT BELVIEU, Texas (AP) — A Black high school student in Texas has served more than two weeks of in-school suspensions for wearing twisted dreadlocks to school. When he arrived Monday with the same hairstyle, he was suspended again, his mother said. Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, was initially suspended the same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles. School officials said his dreadlocks fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code. George, 17, has been suspended since Aug. 31 at the Houston-area school. He was in tears when he was suspended Monday despite his family’s arguments that his hair does not violate the dress code, his mother Darresha George said. “He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle,” she said. “That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool.”

Darresha George said her son has been growing his dreadlocks for nearly 10 years and the family never received pushback or complaints until now. When let down, his dreadlocks hang above his shoulders but she said he has not worn his hair down since school started in mid-August. George said she couldn’t understand how he violated the dress code when his hair was tied on top of his head. “I even had a discussion about the CROWN Act with the principal and vice principal,” she said. “They said the act does not cover the length of his hair.” Barbers Hill Independent School District prohibits male students from having hair extending below the eyebrows, ear lobes or top of a t-shirt collar, according to the student handbook. Additionally, hair on all students must be clean, well-groomed, geometrical and not an unnatural color or variation. The school does not require uniforms.

[mongowheelie]

School punishes Black student over his hair for months — but neither side is backing down - Alternet.org

[pebblesinyourshoe]

The Wizard of Ash Grove

There is a dot on the map just north of the dot on the map that is Battle Ground, Indiana. This little dot has a few houses and a grain elevator used in times gone by. This little collection of houses was a whistle stop at some point. Ash Grove, Indiana isn’t a name that many know. The name rolls off your tongue nicely and always makes me think that at some point - maybe there still is - a collection of ash trees dotted the landscape and someone started saying, “That Ash Grove would sure be a nice place to build a house.”

Ash Grove isn’t famous for much unless you grew up in these parts. There’s a man who raised children there. His dad was a welder at Alcoa and he lived clear across the county in another little spot with an equally intriguing name, Clarks Hill. But circumstances meant that the family move north and settle in a spot smaller than where they came.

The boy attended Battle Ground High School. He wore the Tomahawk basketball jersey with pride although he admitted he wasn’t very good. His brother, he said, was talented. The Tomahawks won the county tournament with his brother. There is a picture of him with the net draped over his head at TC’s Restaurant. Stop by. You can see it.

This man grew up and cut hair and was an auctioneer. He had two sons and a daughter and the love of the game and its pull called him to embrace it longer.

This man had the idea to take the children who were his children’s age who sat in his barber chair or whose father did, and barnstorm. They didn’t have second hand uniforms - theirs were more third-hand. Most time they would show up and go right to the bench and coach would throw out a few balls and the kids would do layups and shoot around. They mostly didn’t have their names announced pregame unless they went somewhere like Rossville or Otterbein where basketball was a religion and no matter how rag-tag the visitors were, they were welcomed with a locker room to sit at half time and their names, which would be scribbled quickly by coach on a napkin or something after he bellowed out, “Jackson,, what’s your number?” would be called. Those were the best games.

Coach did nothing fancy. He let them play. He would beller and holler but never in a mean way. His kids always played hard. His teams always learned during the game and if you ask any of them now - all well into adulthood - they had the best time. They most often won and they always shook hands respectfully after the game.

This man is Ron Knoy. He’s a legend. I love him because he talks non-stop and when I was principal at Rossville was always so appreciative and gracious when he would barnstorm into town.

I began calling him “The Wizard of Ash Grove” about two decades ago. His son is a varsity girls coach and every game Ronnie is there. He is quiet most of the time - sitting up and away from his son so he could coach in peace. But about twice a game you will hear a loud groan after a foul or an errant pass or a missed lay up. The Wizard, like the Krakken, appears once in a while.

I had the chance to attend a high school girl/boy doubleheader tonight. I arrived about fifteen minutes before tip and walked by the sideline in front of Coach Knoy.

“Where’s the Wizard?”

“Oh he’s coming. He’s going to sit right there.”

So I made my way to the top row of the baseline bleachers directly to the right of the home bench and I waited. And sure enough, The Wizard appeared.

He was surrounded by an entourage of family and friends but sat by me. And I knew I was in for a joyous and educational basketball ride for the next four quarters. Ronnie didn’t disappoint. He was animated. He was critical. He was complimentary. He also never said a negative word about his son and his coaching. I’ve never heard him brag about him and I’ve never heard him be critical of his choices.

Ronnie Knoy is what I call a “Legend”. He’s a guy you hear about. He’s a guy you notice has something special about himself. He’s a guy that I often think about and ponder, “That guy wouldn’t want to talk to me. I’ve got nothing to offer.” But he did. And he has always taken the time. And he is someone that you spend time talking with and can’t believe that an hour has passed. He’s a legend but he’s as real as real can get.

I had the opportunity to spend part of my evening with the legend - the Wizard of Ash Grove - Coach Ron Knoy. As a fan of children myself, I appreciate that he is a fan of children as well. He represents something much different than the immaculate jerseys and organized travel teams of today. There is no place today for another group of barnstormers like that which ‘The Wizard’ organized and that is too bad. Because he offered to these kids something wonderful. And tonight, I’m honored to say that “The Wizard of Ash Grove” offered me his time and a whole lot of solicited (and unsolicited) knowledge. And my day was made and this evening will be remembered.

Thanks, Wizard.

[noahb216]

Darryl George: Black Texas school student suspended again for natural hairstyle https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1217580867/black-texas-student-returns-to-class-suspended-again-natural-hair